Naruto (c) Masashi Kishimoto
He held the squishy round ball in his palm and he could the dangling optic nerve against his cheek, and the slick, warm, wet and sticky blood against his cheek. He could hear his own ragged breath in his ears, feel his lungs move the air in irregular pants and his entire body shaking, the pain a dull throb in the back of his mind.
He tugged sharply at the optic nerve and white hot pain laced through his entire body, focusing like a supernova around his left eye socket. He screamed, falling to his side, twitching like mad as blood oozed copiously down his cheeks. He didn't know how long he screamed or why he was doing it. He just kept on screaming.
Weakly he pushed himself to his hands and knees, panting as he tried to regain his breath, but fell down in the mess of his own eyeballs and blood. His once powerful eyes... his glorious fearsome eyes, gazed back silently... hauntingly up at nothing.
Worthless.
Useless.
Broken.
The bloody tail that was the optic nerve made small serpentine patterns behind the useless eyeballs.
He froze when heard the door open with a sharp clack. Swiftly he turned his head in the direction of the sound. He heard a woman's shrill scream and a man's voice shouting something. Was the man shouting at him or someone else? Was there another person in the room. Blindly, he searched for a kunai or a shuriken, just something sharp and deadly to protect himself with. He never felt so weak and helpless before in his life. Not even when he was a child. He was vaguely aware that he hadn't passed out due to blood loss, but he just assumed that was because he was high on adrenaline.
The man called out again. It sounded like his name or something he should have recognize as his name. Yet the pain... the pain was deafening. It was pressing all around him like a warm yet blanket, just like the darkness that had engulfed him.
He jerked violently, like a wild animal cornered and frightened in it's cage; bloodied fingertips reaching for the man's face to claw out his eyes.
Hands suddenly clasped his, squeezing them tightly. It felt familiar... eerily familiar. He knew those hands belonged to blood, to kin... to the pinprick of light in the everlasting suffocating darkness that was his world. "I-I-Izuna?" he croaked, his throat from screaming. He felt hands on his face, tips of thumbs stroking just below his empty eye sockets.
"Yes, Madara," there was a pause, "it's me Izuna."
"Izuna," relief flooded his voice before he finally allowed his mind to slip into the calm darkness of unconsciousness.
"Well, how is he?" Yuzuki asked when she saw Izuna exit the small room Madara had isolated himself in since he lost his sight. Izuna wearily shook his head, the tip of his long ponytail poking out behind his back.
"Not good," the younger brother sighed tiredly, "Yuki is amazed he even survived ripping his own eyes out of his skull. He's unconscious right now. Which is probably for the best. Yuki held him as best he could."
"And... and his eyes?" Yuzuki asked softly.
"Yuki took them," Izuna shrugged.
"What are we going to do?" the woman asked.
"There's nothing we can do, Yuzuki. Madara's blind. The clan... the chance of survival is slim. Katsuro is young, inexperience and sensitive. The clan had always favored Ran for the position of heir, but Madara had faith in Katsuro and Katsuro pulled through," Izuna sighed running his hand through his long bangs. "The clan is gone without Madara... I'm positive they will follow me if they must, but I'm not a leader like my brother," Izuna closed his eyes, "there is already fractions that are dividing the clan. Those who support Ran for heir and those that support Katsuro. Madara never came out and officially declared Katsuro his heir, but I doubt that would stop Ran's supporters. They are willing to start a civil war just to see Ran succeed my brother."
"Madara always intended Katsuro to succeed him," Yuzuki said with confidence as she looked at her tired brother-in-law.
"Not always. When they were children, Ran showed considerable more talent in the shinobi arts than Katsuro. Katsuro has, and still is, the weaker of the two. The only reason he kept Katsuro as his official heir was to divert enemy attention away from Ran. Nobody cares about a second son," Izuna muttered as he glanced at his own hands.
"He was playing shogi with the lives of my sons?" Yuzuki eyes narrowed dangerously. "Why didn't he tell me this?"
"Because he didn't want you to fight with him about it. Katsuro has improved in leaps and bounds since he was a child. Katsuro will be an excellent leader, but... Ran has always been more... militant, like my brother. And there are members of this clan that rather have that sort of person in the position of leader."
"But.. aren't people getting weary of constant war?"
"We all are," Izuna closed his eyes, "even Madara is. But, he will continue to fight until he's assured that the clan will forever be on top of the dog pile and safe. So, he will ignore his own weariness and continue to fight."
"What are we going to do about Madara?" Yuzuki asked.
"I..." Izuna licked his lips, "I don't know."
"Can I see him?" Yuzuki asked.
"No, tend to the children," Izuna stood up.
"But he's my husband!" Yuzuki stood to challenge her brother-in-law.
"Yes," Izuna smiled sadly, "and he would never have wanted you to see him like this. So, please Yuzuki, tend to your children. Keep your memories of Madara of how he once was. My brother may be blind, but he still has his pride."
"Damn his pride," Yuzuki turned away, stalking down the hall. Izuna sighed sadly before walking down the hall to wear Madara hid the sake.
He returned to the room a few hours later, his head a bit lighter but his thoughts sharp as a blade's newly finished edged. Izuna sat down besides his brother and grabbed his hand. "Izuna... that you?" Madara asked as he pulled his hand free from Izuna's.
"Yes, it's me, Madara," Izuna said, watching his brother sit up and feel the bandages around his eyes.
"My eyes? Did you find a cure?" Madara asked, his voice a mere whisper, but there was a trace of hope.
"No... you... clawed your eyes out," Izuna informed him. Madara pulled his hands away from his face and blindly stared at them, his hands shaking.
"N-No... I... NO!" his hands with for his throat, intent on ripping out his jugular.
"No, Madara!" Izuna threw himself around his brother, preventing him from committing a painful suicide.
"No! No! No! No!" Madara clawed at Izuna, ripping his shirt sleeve, tearing deep bleeding gashes in his flesh, until his body shook with tearless sobs. Izuna ignored the pain and just held on.
"It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay, I promise."
"No it's not. How will it be okay, Izuna? I don't even have eyes to see with! I'm worthless," he choked on his tears, "I'm utterly worthless now. I'll need a new pair of eyes. But it's not like there is a shop that sells eyeballs!"
Izuna looked up suddenly and pulled away from his defeated brother. The younger Uchiha touched his own eyes. "A new pair..."
"What are you babbling about?" Madara snapped.
"A new pair of eyes... my eyes! Nii-sama, take my eyes!"
"Tch, and blind both of us! Hell no, then the clan will truly be crushed by the Senju. Ran and Katsuro are no match for that Senju without Mangekyou and they are strictly forbidden to even learn of the process to awaken it." Madara snarled, glowering sightlessly at Izuna. "I rather you kill me than take your eyes."
"Madara... aniki... please... take my eyes. Use my eyes! Put my eyes into your now empty eye sockets!"
"And rob you of your Sharingan? I would never wish a fate that horrible on anyone! Well... maybe that Senju... but certainly not another Uchiha!"
"Madara..." Izuna sighed.
"Please," Madara felt for a kunai. He wrapped his fingers around it and pressed it into Izuna's hands. "Kill me. Put me out of this misery. Please... I rather have you kill me, because you are my brother."
"I... I can't kill you," Izuna hated how he sounded like a lost and scared child. Like he once was, right after their parents died. He hated his weakness, of always clinging to Madara, of being such a crybaby, how he never was as good as his big brother. Madara always seemed to be just that much better than him. And he hated it. Like he never hated before. Yet... he never hated Madara. No... he loved Madara, with all his heart and soul. He would do anything for Madara. Even if it meant death for him in the end, so long as Madara could live and continue to strive for peace.
Madara was the viaduct to peace for Uchiha, and Izuna was more than content in being Madara's pillar. "Please, Aniki, don't ask me do to that! Anything but that! How can I kill my own brother?"
"Yet," Madara's voice was calm and slow, "aren't you asking me to do the same thing to you? Kill you by taking your eyes? What type of man willingly hurts his own brother?"
Izuna smiled gently at Madara, "Aa... but you see dear brother of mine, I don't mind the pain. In fact, if I could I'd take all your suffering onto myself. I've always been the weak and worthless one between you and I. I'm only as strong as I am because I chased after you, because I wanted to be strong like my nii-sama. I wanted to be like you. You, Madara, are the strong one, the one destined to be bring peace to the land and to Uchiha. Me? I'm just the pillar that supports you."
"Stop talking like that Izuna," Madara hissed, unnerved by his brother's sudden calm demeanor.
Izuna chuckled softly, "But it's true. Your pain is my pain. Your hopes are my hopes. Your dreams are my dreams. I am nothing. I was simply born to give you a companion, the one true friend, and... to be your spare. The gods seem to know that one day you'll awaken the power of the Mangekyou Sharingan, and that one day that great power will take your light. So, they gave you me. Your spare, your extra light. I have devoted my entire life to you. Of all the Uchiha, I am your most loyal follower."
"Why?" Madara asked, his voice soft and weak. He was utterly bewildered, his mind wondering vaguely if Izuna had always felt like that.
Madara felt soft lips against his own cracked and chapped ones... Izuna's lips. It was a chaste kiss yet at the same time a sinful kiss. A kiss between lovers and brothers, a kiss of both light and dark, of yin and yang.
Izuna pulled away, but when he spoke his lips still brushed Madara's. "Because... I love you."
"Izuna," Madara's voiced cracked slightly, his heart wrenching in guilt as he realized what he had, no must do. Slowly, he undid the bandages from his eyes. Slowly, he reached out to his brother's face that was so close to his that he could smell Izuna's breath. He felt the soft skin of his brother's eyelid, the curve of his brother's eye.
"Please," Madara felt the guilt squeeze his heart like a vice, "forgive me."
Madara wondered why he always hated the rain. He knew it wasn't because he was hydrophobic. He knew it was because it reminded him of tears. It always seemed that the world was sad whenever it rained and that the rain were the tears of the world. Tears and sorrow were drilled into him as weaknesses that had no place in a shinobi's heart.
Yet it was curious to him that he felt those very tears cascade down his cheeks with the rain. And that he welcomed the drops of water upon his closed eyelids.
Uchiha Madara didn't remember how long he stayed out in the rain, blindly staring up at the angry grey sky, but it was a long while before he finally lowered his head and pulled the hood of his cloak up over his wet black hair. He opened his eyes.
The light had returned.
Well I got the Naruto Character Databook! I'm so happy! I love Madara's entry, even if it's only one page. I also go Naruto vol. 54 (Konan is so utterly awesome! 600 billion letter bombs! Tobidara was lucky to have survived! Cheated with Izanagi though), Black Bird vol. 12, Dance in the Vampire Bund vol. 11 and Pandora Hearts vol. 8. I read Vampire Bund and Naruto though, not Black Bird yet.
It was nice that my mommy visited me here for the weekend, she brought my Madara plushie and some other things and it was nice to see her again. It's really nice being so close to home. The liberty center here is so much nicer than Corry.
So, yes, this in inspired by Madara's data entry in the data book. Of course, they don't have his height, weight or blood type. Apparently his least favorite food is shirako, which according to wikipedia is fish sperm or fish milt. Meh, either way he doesn't like fish reproductive parts XD
Anyways, enjoy this. Oh and I hope I grossed you guys out in the beginning.
R'n'R
Sanguinary Toxicity
